Kanpur, September 11, 2026: India’s energy innovation ambitions gained fresh momentum as Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited and IIT Kanpur hosted the MC²+ Ignite outreach event, drawing more than 400 startups, researchers, students and academicians for a focused day of dialogue, mentorship and founder-led learning.
The event created a high-energy platform around one central question: how can India move promising energy technologies from laboratories into real-world use faster and at greater scale? With participation from policymakers, industry leaders, academia, researchers and startup founders, the gathering placed deep-tech startups and industry-academia collaboration at the centre of India’s evolving energy sector.
BPCL, a Fortune Global 500 company and Maharatna PSU, partnered with IIT Kanpur to introduce participants to MC²+ Ignite, including its focus areas, selection criteria and the larger vision of the MC² Foundation. The programme is positioned as India’s flagship energy innovation accelerator for deep-tech startups working on critical challenges across the energy value chain.
Senior leaders at the event included Shri Awanish Kumar Awasthi, Advisor to the Hon’ble Chief Minister, Uttar Pradesh; Shri Alok Kumar, Principal Secretary, Planning and Programme Implementation, Science and Technology, Government of Uttar Pradesh; Shri Sanjay Khanna, Chairman and Managing Director, BPCL; Professor Manindra Agrawal, Director, IIT Kanpur; Padma Vibhushan Prof. M.M. Sharma; Shri Senthilkumar G R, Head, Corporate Strategy, BPCL; Shri Bharat Newalkar, Head, R&D, BPCL; Professor Raja Angamuthu, Associate Dean, R&D and Professor in charge IOTA, IIT Kanpur; and Dr. Ashutosh Agnihotri, CEO, SIIC-IIT Kanpur.
Shri Awanish Kumar Awasthi highlighted Uttar Pradesh’s continued support for innovation and said the coming together of energy majors, academia and startups extends the state’s ongoing momentum. He noted the state’s work with IIT Kanpur across drones, green hydrogen, deep-tech startups, the U-Hub innovation ecosystem and quantum computing, while pointing to Compressed Biogas, green hydrogen and mobility as areas of strong interest.
Shri Alok Kumar said MC²+ fits closely with Uttar Pradesh’s efforts to support startups. He referred to the state’s new Startup Policy, patient capital support of up to ₹40 crore in a single startup, matching grants for national challenge winners, accelerator programmes and a startup-focused procurement policy.
BPCL Chairman and Managing Director Shri Sanjay Khanna underlined the strength of combining startup agility, academic research and industry infrastructure. He said MC²+ brings these capabilities together on a national platform, helping startups move from prototype to scale while supporting replication across the wider industry.
He also connected the initiative with India’s energy transition and Atmanirbhar Bharat, pointing to major opportunity areas such as indigenous catalysts, hydrogen, low-carbon energy, AI and data analytics, predictive reliability, carbon capture, crude sludge and desalter technologies, and intrinsically safe robotics for tank inspection.
Padma Vibhushan Prof. M.M. Sharma called for sharper focus on emerging technologies that can reduce energy consumption and emissions across energy, refining and petrochemical sectors. He pointed to carbon capture systems, membrane-based separations, lithium recovery technologies, metal-organic frameworks for hydrocarbon separations, waste heat recovery, hydrogen utilisation and circular carbon pathways.
Professor Manindra Agrawal said India’s major innovation challenge is that significant laboratory research often fails to reach the market. He described MC²+ as a platform designed to address that gap, backed by eight leading energy majors and supported by the leadership of Shri Neeraj Mittal, Secretary, MoPNG and an alumnus of IIT Kanpur.
The event also featured founder stories from energy-tech startups, where entrepreneurs discussed the challenges, breakthroughs and conviction involved in building solutions for complex energy-sector problems.
A panel discussion titled **“Built, Not Imported: Startups and Energy Majors Powering India’s Energy Future”** brought together Mr. Arun George of Genrobotics, Dr. Akshay Jain of Cancrie, Mr. Ankit Jhanwar of DashamLabs, Dr. Arnab Dutta of UrjanovaC, Mr. Varun Kumar of Detect Technologies, Mr. Uddhav Kumar of Lynkit and Mr. Ankush Sarkar of H2Power Energy. The discussion focused on scaling deep-tech energy ventures in India, from prototype to pilot and onward to commercial deployment.
The day also included a technical roundtable between BPCL’s technical champions and IIT Kanpur professors. The discussion centred on matching research priorities with MC²+ Ignite themes and identifying deeper opportunities for industry-academia collaboration.
Academic participation from IIIT Lucknow, CIPET, HBTU and Kanpur University further reflected growing institutional engagement in India’s energy innovation ecosystem.
MC²+ Ignite is now accepting applications until **September 15, 2026**. More information and applications are available at **www.mc2plus.in**.
